The European members of NATO
have now arrived at a crucial crossroads. This once respected organization's original
meaning and purpose have now been subverted. Many signs now point to the fact
that it can no longer continue on the misguided militaristic course it has been
following in recent years; and that, as a result, its demise may be inevitable.

The turning point for NATO arrived
when this North Atlantic Treaty Organization was transformed from its primary role
of protecting European nations from outside threats to becoming the chief
subsidiary of the U.S.
military. Thereafter, NATO obediently did the bidding of the U.S. government
by dutifully assisting its military in one highly questionable, or completely
unjustified war, after another.

Perhaps these North
Atlantic nations are having second thoughts about following the U.S. into Central Asia and the war in Afghanistan.
The leaders of these North Atlantic nations may well
realize that this organization made a crucial mistake when it involved itself in
the Middle East and directly participated in the dismemberment of the nation of
Iraq.
Are these nations feeling good about having taken part in the massive bombing of
Libya
that devastated that country and its people and set off an ongoing civil war?

These European nations are coming to the realization that
remaining in Afghanistan
is becoming more dangerous with each passing day. NATO troops of many nations
are coming under greater attacks and experiencing increased deaths at the hands
of Afghan security forces and police that they, themselves, have trained. That
is an ominous sign that they can fully expect this situation to become very
bloody indeed as the majority of these troops prepare for withdrawal in the
next two years.

These attacks will only serve to convince the European
nations to remove their troops at an accelerated rate. The French troops will
all be out by the end of 2012, most of Canadian troops are already gone and New Zealand
will follow soon. They have had enough and they want no more. They and others
are finally awakening to the complete futility of the situation after over a
decade of allowing themselves to remain a part of this misguided war and
occupation.

Additionally there are two other very pertinent reasons
why NATO's days are numbered and why it may, before long, cease to exist, at
least as currently constituted.

First, the actions of these European nations as they join
with the U.S. to try to
confront and contain Russia could
very well backfire on them because they, collectively, depend upon Russia for 40%
of their oil and natural gas supplies; and this dependence will only increase
going into the future. How in the world can you engage in threatening actions
against the very nation upon which you are becoming more and more dependent for
vital resources? It looks like these European nations are painting themselves
into a corner from which extraction might be impossible.

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Russia is not the least bid pleaded over NATO's ongoing
agenda intended to interfere with its own foreign policy objectives and if it
gets to a point where it feels overly threatened, then it will not hesitate to
curtail or even completely shut off these shipments of critical resources to
Europe, thereby causing massive financial damage to its economies.

Russia is not
only a major supplier of oil and gas for these Euro countries, it has also
bought oil refineries in Belgium,
Germany, the Netherlands and even Sicily. So by establishing a presence within
these countries it is indicating that it intends to further increase this
dependency. As the availability and cost of these critical resources becomes
more problematic in the future, can you just imagine the power that Russia could hold
over these countries?

Now to Iran
which also has an advantage over certain European countries by their dependence
on its oil. Iran, under
normal circumstances, transports some 500,000 barrels of oil to Europe every
day, primarily to Italy, Spain and Greece, three of the countries
within the Eurozone that are having very serious financial problems.

That supply chain has now been interrupted since these EU
nations, once again submitting to the dictates of the U.S., are exercising
sanctions against Iran that prevent them from importing its oil. When EU
nations that are experiencing severe economic difficulties exercise oil
sanctions against Iran
they are also greatly harming themselves. And if Iran, as its government has
threatened, permanently cuts off oil shipments to these nations, then it will
suffer a significant permanent loss of revenues.

So these nations, instead of benefiting from mutual trade,
both end up as losers. But who are the winners? The winners are the U.S. and Israel,
that Middle East agitator, which instituted these sanctions in order to hurt Iran
financially and prevent it from supposedly developing a nuclear weapons
capability. By blindly continuing to follow the dictates and demands of the U.S. these EU
nations are proving that they are still not strong enough to break the chains
of submission and subservience that have tied them down for decades.

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They should have learned this important lesson by now but,
so far, they haven't; you can't keep on using military threats and sanctions
against the very nations that supply you with essential resources needed to
drive your economies. Why continue to antagonize and make them your enemies
when you know full well that they have the ability to interrupt the flow of
necessary resources to you any time they wish? That's like cutting your own
throat, but that's exactly what these European nations are doing.

If NATO had remained true to its charter as a defensive
organization and had not allowed itself to become transformed into an offensive
force reaching into regions across the world, it would probably not be facing
its approaching, almost inevitable demise. Looking back, leaders of these
nations may rue the day that they ever allowed themselves to be used as pawns
and lackeys in a misguided quest for world domination.

France , Germany, Belgium,
Italy, Spain, the Netherlands,
Portugal, and Greece are also
a part of the Eurozone, that economic union of European nations that is experiencing
severe, ongoing financial problems. These nations with massive deficit problems
will find it very difficult to justify their continued funding of, and
involvement with, NATO under these dire circumstances.

Michael Payne is an independent, progressive activist. His writings deal with social, economic, political and foreign policy issues. He is a featured writer on Opednews and Nation of Change and his articles have appeared on many other websites (more...)